


The Talk

by DoreyG



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Brother-Sister Relationships, Community: comment_fic, F/M, Family, Iris is a great sister, M/M, Male-Female Friendship, Meet the Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-14
Updated: 2015-03-14
Packaged: 2018-03-17 19:49:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 896
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3541793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoreyG/pseuds/DoreyG
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Okay, so, <i>technically</i> she knows that it’s none of her business. Barry is allowed to date whoever he wants to date, and – as a good adoptive sister – she has <i>no</i> business in meddling with that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Talk

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nevcolleil](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nevcolleil/gifts).
  * Translation into Русский available: [Серьезный разговор](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11552256) by [PrettyPenny](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PrettyPenny/pseuds/PrettyPenny)



Okay, so, _technically_ she knows that it’s none of her business. Barry is allowed to date whoever he wants to date, and – as a good adoptive sister – she has _no_ business in meddling with that. 

But she’s just so _curious_ , so completely and utterly _hooked_ and she’s a journalist and she can’t help it and Barry is her _brother_ … And he’s finally _found_ somebody. A special somebody, a guy who makes his eyes light up and his voice go all giddy and his mouth run even faster than it normally does. She’s never seen Barry, adorkably nerdy Barry who puts his foot in his mouth roughly every five seconds, like this before. Has never seen him so bright, so dreamy, so bright red as he describes what his ever so special man can do with his _hands_.

“Barry?”

And so forgive her if she wants to see this mystery man with her own two eyes.

“Barry…?”

Forgive her if she wants to meet him, mock threaten him, get to know him as part of the _family_ \- because no relationship can engender _that_ kind of a look in a person’s eyes, and not be serious.

“Barry, where…?”

_Forgive_ her-

…If she tiptoes into the living room, finds Barry sprawled prone on the sofa with a horrified expression fixed glassily upon his face and immediately gives up all plans in favour of rushing to his side at top speed, “God, Barry, are you alright? What happened, did somebody _die_ or something?”

“…Hey, Iris,” it takes a long moment – but he does, at length, eventually manage to speak again. It’s less than reassuring, he sounds like he’s just seen a conga line of ghosts, “what’re you doing here?”

“I, uh-“ she bites her lip, shakes her head. She’d go get a glass of water, or something stronger because their dad is _exceptionally_ bad at changing his hiding places, but she gets the odd impression that Barry needs to be reminded that humanity exists right about now, “promise you won’t kill me?”

Barry blinks, Barry sighs, Barry doesn’t turn his head to face her. Wow, this has _got_ to be bad, “why would I kill you?”

“…Because I came over to meet your new boyfriend,” mass murder bad, nuclear bad, world ending in about five seconds bad. He turns to face her, at _that_ little blurt, but declines to stop looking glassy. It reminds her of something, though she’s not quite sure _what_ , “I’m sorry, I’m sorry! But you told me that he picks you up from here sometimes and you’ve been looking all soppy for _weeks_ now and- and- I just wanted to _see_ him. And how he treats you, and how he smiles, and his _hands_ -”

“Oh,” Barry says, and pauses for a long moment. This sense of déjà vu is _really_ starting to become a problem “…That’s alright, I suppose.”

She’s seen that expression before, she _knows_ that she’s seen that expression before. The only problem, the rather big problem in her mind, is exactly _where_ , “Barry, please, talk to me. What’s going on? Why do you _look_ like this? Has something happened? Barry, is it dad…?”

“Yes,” Barry says, and her heart stops for a moment… Until she notices that he still isn’t panicked, still isn’t taken aback, still is just _staring_ like he’s witnessed something terrible, “you know how you wanted to meet Len?”

“Len?” She blinks for a second - forces her mind, dulled as it is by confusion, to reconnect “…That’s the name of your boyfriend?”

“Leonard, actually, but I like calling him Len,” Barry offers glumly, and shakes his head again. That expression, that startled expression, becoming more and more prominent in a way that she thinks… “Joe wanted to meet him too. And decided to do so tonight, just as I was preparing to go out on a date with him.”

…That she _knows_ she recognizes.

Oh.

Oh _god_.

“ _Barry_ ,” she says, into the horrified silence. She remembers the look on Eddie’s face when her dad first realized that they were dating, that shocked _pain_ that hadn’t gone away for a good long while. The only option, in the face of that, is to flop down besides him on the couch and join him in staring into space “…Is he still alive? Is dad burying him out in the garden right about now?”

“No,” Barry whispers, and somehow manages to make it sound like a death sentence. The poor boy, it’s going to take him _years_ to recover from the horror of this, “he _smiled_ , and offered to take Len out for a _drink_.”

…Oh god, it’s even worse than she feared. She sinks deeper into the couch, lets out a low grunt of _pain_ , “and he-“

“He _accepted_ , Iris. He actually _accepted_ before I could do anything about it and then he was suddenly in the car with Joe and they were driving away and…”

There’s a long pause. One that she doesn’t, in all good conscience, feel qualified enough to interrupt.

“They can’t murder each other?” Barry offers optimistically, after about five minutes of mute _horror_ that feels like an eternity, “right? At least _one_ of them is going to get back here alive, right?”

She thinks, for a long moment.

“…You can share Eddie with me, if you like?”

Barry’s groan, long and _painful_ , pretty much says it all.


End file.
